Gold from the Sea; Epic Story of the Recovery of "Niagara's Bullion

Sydney, N.S.W., Australia: Australasian Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd, 1942. Second Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good. J. M ("Beau") Leonard (Photographs). 271, [1] pages. Illustrated Endpapers. Frontis illustration. Illustrations. Foreword by W. A. Mackay. Cover has some wear and soiling. Some page soiling. The R.M.S. Niagara struck a mine and sank off the coast of New Zealand in June 1940 with nearly eight tons of solid gold aboard. RMS Niagara was an ocean liner launched on 17 August 1912 and owned by the Union Steam Ship Company intended for the Australia-Vancouver, Canada service. She was nicknamed "the Titanic of the Pacific", but after the sinking of the real RMS Titanic this was dropped in favor of "Queen of the Pacific". She should not be confused with an earlier RMS Niagara, an ocean liner built in 1848 for the Cunard Line. At the start of World War II, RMS Niagara was operated by the Canadian-Australasian Line, maintaining a service from Auckland, New Zealand, to Suva and Vancouver. A secret and large consignment of gold from the Bank of England was in Niagara's strong room and went down with the ship. There were 295 boxes, each containing two ingots of gold (590 ingots total), valued at £2,500,000. The gold was payment from the UK to the USA, which had not yet entered the war, for munitions supplies. A Melbourne company, United Propriety Salvage Ltd, was promptly contracted to recover the gold. At the time it was one of the deepest salvage operations ever undertaken. The salvage team was led by Captain J. P. Williams and John Edwards Johnstone on the ship Claymore. On 2 February 1941 the wreck of the Niagara was found and the salvage team started the hazardous task of retrieving the gold. They had only rudimentary equipment, a viewing/diving chamber, radio, and a grab lowered from the surface. The team blasted a hole in Niagara's hull and successfully recovered 555 gold bars: more than eight tons and 94% of the total. The remaining boxes were inaccessible.